Faculty Fellows

Raja Benz

Lecturer in Musical Theatre, Theatre & Drama

Professor Benz’s will explore the intersections of consent-based performance, dramaturgy, and intimacy coordination, with a focus on themes of fascism, sexuality, and global theatre practices. The project includes international collaboration at the IFTR conference in Germany, domestic conference participation, and student-faculty engagement through workshops and course development. Benz will further their research through site visits, archival work, and performance observations, contributing to a forthcoming book, Queering Intimacy: Performing Identity and Culture.

antonio c. cuyler

Professor of Music

Professor Cuyler will lead University of Michigan students in a residency at the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, as part of We Were Fridays, a multidisciplinary performance inspired by Gullah Geechee culture. Through immersive study alongside students and faculty from partner institutions, participants will explore how the Gullah Geechee people have preserved their unique cultural heritage through artistic traditions such as quilting, folk tales, and Ring Shouts. The residency will include reflections on how this heritage can inform solutions to contemporary challenges, culminating in a student-devised performance at the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County.

Jake Hooker

Program Head: Residential College Drama

Professor Hooker will initiate the first research phase of a multi-modal project documenting the history of theatre in Detroit, culminating in a book titled Will It Rise From the Ashes? Detroit’s Theatre Scenes, 1913 to the Present. The project will include an online archive and a live performance event, celebrating Detroit’s theatre legacy and engaging the community. The research combines archival work, oral histories, and ethnography to recover underrecognized stories—especially those from Detroit’s Black theatre scene—and trace the evolution of theatrical expression through industrial, civil rights, and post-bankruptcy eras.

Zeynep Özcan

Assistant Professor of Music, Performing Arts Technology

Professor Özcan will present Customs and Borders, an experimental transducer-based interactive live performance in Istanbul, Turkey at ”Sonified: A Symposium of Sonic Practices” at Arter Contemporary Art Museum’s Karbon black box theatre during summer 2025. This work challenges the audience’s perception on social identities through playful engagement and critical reflection. Özcan plans to refine their interactive theatrical system, incorporating facial recognition and machine learning, and gather international audience feedback, evolving the work into a traveling performance by the end of the summer.

Greta Uehling

Teaching Professor, Program in International and Comparative Studies

Professor Uehling’s research proposal explores how public art and performance in Tbilisi, Georgia, serve as a form of protest against Russian influence and pro-Russian governance. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, over 100,000 Russians have moved to Georgia, often without integrating into local culture, triggering cultural tensions. Uehling examines how Georgian citizens resist this “Russification” through street art, fireworks, body-based protest, and public expression, while also investigating how Russian immigrants negotiate their identities in this context. Using visual ethnography and autoethnography—including photography, video, and participant observation—she aims to document and analyze these cultural dynamics. Her project builds on her prior research in Ukraine and contributes to academic discussions on protest performance, identity, and cultural resistance. She plans to disseminate findings through academic conferences, publications, and public exhibits, and is well-positioned to undertake this work due to her linguistic skills, regional expertise, and extensive fieldwork experience.